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Potential Greenwashing at Dutch Supermarkets

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Potential Greenwashing at Dutch Supermarkets Potential greenwashing at Dutch Supermarkets (RetailTrends, 2016) Name: Thibaut Marie Tardieu Student number: 960429823080 Study: Business and Consumer studies (BBC) Date: 05-11-2020 Supervisor: Anne Brouwer Second reader: Frans Verhees Course code: YSS-81812 ECTS: 12 Abstract Sustainability plays an increasingly important role in the lives of Dutch consumers. Supermarkets are at the end of the supply chain and play an important role in greening the market. They are increasingly communicating sustainability actions through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports. However, on various occasions Dutch supermarkets have been accused of greenwashing: a combination of poor sustainability performance and communicating positively about sustainability. The major problem with greenwashing in this industry is that it could create a concerning status quo regarding true sustainability at Dutch supermarkets. Furthermore, the large amount of information available to consumers makes it difficult to distinguish between deceptive and truthful information communicated by supermarkets, creating the risk of confusion. To analyse Dutch supermarkets and how they respond to greenwashing accusations, their sustainability actions and communications. They are examined from different perspectives: the supermarket, the consumer, and society organisations. CSR reports from 2017–2019 are analysed for three supermarkets (Albert Heijn, PLUS, and Aldi) according to six dimensions: environment, animal welfare, packaging, food miles, health, and food waste. The Sustainable Brand Index™ for 2017– 2019 is used for the consumer sustainability perspective of these three supermarkets. Publications from society organisations that made it into popular media in the same time period are used to investigate whether any of the three supermarkets have been accused of greenwashing, and what the impact of these accusations was on supermarkets’ behaviour and on consumers’ sustainability perception of the supermarkets. Results show that supermarkets report increasingly more on sustainability. To a great extent, this seems attributable to external incentives, such as ranking high(est) in the Sustainable Brand Index™ or receiving “awards” from society organisations for being the worst. An example is “winning” Het Gouden Windei for the most misleading food product of the year. Admittedly, criticised by the social organisation most comprehensive toward the market leader. However, the criticism of society organisations is essential. Social organisations function as moderators of the market. Although the published criticism does not result in a decrease in perception among consumers. It turned out that supermarkets are sensitive to the criticism of society organisations. As a consequence, they adjust their policy. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... 2 List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ 4 List of Tables ......................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 5 1.1 Background and context ............................................................................................ 5 1.2 Problem statement ..................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Research questions .................................................................................................... 7 2. Literature review ................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 Key concepts ............................................................................................................. 8 2.2 Supermarkets ............................................................................................................. 9 2.3 Consumers ................................................................................................................. 9 2.4 Society organisations ............................................................................................... 11 2.5 Overview of theory in figure form .......................................................................... 12 3. Research design and methods .............................................................................................. 13 3.1 Aims and objectives ................................................................................................ 13 3.2 Methods ................................................................................................................... 13 3.3 Supermarkets ........................................................................................................... 13 3.4 Consumers ............................................................................................................... 14 3.5 Society organisations ............................................................................................... 14 4. Results ................................................................................................................................. 16 4.1 Supermarkets ........................................................................................................... 16 4.2 Consumers ............................................................................................................... 22 4.3 Society organisations ............................................................................................... 22 4.3.1 Environment ............................................................................................................ 23 4.3.2 Animal Welfare ....................................................................................................... 24 4.3.3 Packaging ................................................................................................................ 24 4.3.4. Food Miles ............................................................................................................. 24 4.3.5 Health ...................................................................................................................... 25 4.3.6 Food waste .............................................................................................................. 25 5. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 25 6. Discussion ............................................................................................................................ 27 8. Reference list ....................................................................................................................... 30 3 List of Figures 1. Perspectives relative to each other with dimensions List of Tables 1. Dimensions and Supermarkets Relative to CSR 2. Sustainable Brand IndexTM and Supermarkets 3. Dimensions and Supermarkets Relative to Society Organisations 4 1. Introduction 1.1 Background and context This thesis analyses Dutch supermarkets’ sustainability as described in their corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and compares that to consumers’ perception of supermarkets’ sustainability. It also explores greenwashing accusations from society organisations regarding the supermarket’s sustainability efforts and whether this has led to a change in consumers’ perceptions and/or supermarkets’ sustainability reporting. This thesis topic came about when I was visiting Dutch supermarkets and noticed that they are increasingly acting on sustainability. In particular, at Albert Heijn, which had just won the award for being the most sustainable supermarket (Albert Heijn, 2020), the advertising was abundant. This has drawn my interest to the topic of sustainability at Dutch supermarkets and the credibility of these sustainability communications. It is hard to ignore the call to protect the planet. “Earth Overshoot Day is the day on which humanity’s demands on nature exceed the Earth’s capacity to regenerate this demand for the entire year”. In 2020, Earth Overshoot Day fell on 22 August, which underscores the increasing call for sustainable development. Sustainable development meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (United Nations, 1987). The food supply chain is a pillar of sustainable development, with supermarkets being at the end of the food supply chain. The choice of supermarkets is essential. The policies they pursue affect the entire supply chain. If supermarkets do not ask for sustainable products, suppliers will not deliver them, and production companies will not produce them. Therefore, it is crucial to make the supermarket sector sustainable and, thus, sustainability must be considered (Earth Overshoot Day, 2020). Centraal Bureau Levensmiddelenhandel (CBL), the trade association of supermarkets and foodservice companies, states, “supermarket organisations take sustainable initiatives in the areas of assortment, biodiversity, climate, energy-saving, and packaging”. They also point to partnerships in the chain, since sustainability in the sector can only be established in collaboration with supply chain partners (CBL, 2020). The initiatives
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